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DeBlasio mandates that NYC stand by its values

Submitted by Robyn on Mon, 03/07/2016 - 2:08pm

Mayor Bill DeBlasio today signed an executive order declaring that all city-owned buildings that have single-sex facilities would allow transgender people to use the facility of the gender with which they identify. That order includes schools, city offices, gyms and recreation centers, public parks and some museums.

People will not be asked to show identification or otherwise prove their gender, the city said, and employees will receive training to assist them in meeting the requirements.

The city’s public hospitals and public housing buildings, which are not technically covered by the order because they are run as independent authorities, have also agreed to implement the rules.

Today, the executive order will make loud and clear that New York City is a city for us all: cisgender, transgender, non-binary.

--Carmelyn Malalais, chairof the NYC Human Rights Commission

I think New York City has an obligation to lead. I think we have an obligation show that everyone should be embraced and everyone should be accepted. Change comes from the grassroots. Change comes from the ground, and if people who believe in human rights don’t stand up for them, it lets those negative voices dominate.

--Mayor DeBlasio

The executive order does not apply to private business. But New York City has included gender identity in its human rights law since 2002, and Ms. Malalis noted that it already “could be considered a violation of the city human rights law” to deny someone access to the restroom matching their gender identity.

Several other localities have sought to do the opposite of New York’s executive order—seeking to bar transgender people form using a bathroom for a gender different than the one listed on their government IDs or that they were assigned at birth, arguing it is necessary to protect women from men seeking to inappropriately use the same restroom.

Mr. de Blasio referred to that push as a “negative current” across the nation.

Somehow, hate is making a comeback.

We have very clear New York values. And we’re going to stand up for them.